1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a battery charger for charging a built-in battery of a compact electric apparatus such as an electric shaver and a structure for detecting the compact electric apparatus mounted on a mounting base of the battery charger.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, a mounting base for a compact electric apparatus such as an electric shaver has contact members through which electric power for charging a built-in secondary battery and control signals to transmit to the compact electric apparatus are provided (refer to Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2008-18128, for example). In such a kind of mounting base, a detection unit to detect that the compact electric apparatus is mounted thereon is separately provided from the contact members, and a push-fit type detection switch is generally used as the detection unit.
In the conventional mounting base described above, the contact members and the detection switch are located separately from each other. Thus, unless the compact electric apparatus is held on the mounting base properly, it may be erroneously judged that the compact electric apparatus is properly mounted on the mounting base when the detection switch is pressed. In such a case, the contact members of the mounting base do not contact with the terminals of the compact electric apparatus, electric charge of the built-in secondary battery of the compact electric apparatus cannot be performed, for example. In addition, the contact members and the detection unit are configured as different functional components, so that a number of components and production cost of the mounting base increase.